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KEA'AU, Hawaii - The Draft Comprehensive Management Plan for the lowland Puna rainforest owned by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs was discussed during a public meeting.

(BIVN) – The creation of a Comprehensive Management Plan for the the 25,856-acre Wao Kele o Puna forest reserve is nearing completion.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which aquired the treasured lowland rainforest in 2006, has been working with contractor Forest Solutions Inc. since 2016 to draft the management plan for Wao Kele o Puna. “A substantial component to the planning process has been community engagement, which, so far, has been conducted through ethnohistorical interviews, a community advisory council, called the ‘Aha Kūkākūkā, and a public meeting in Pāhoa,” reads the OHA website.

On Thursday evening, interested members of the public met again at the Haʻaeamahi Dining Hall on the Keauau campus of Kamehameha Schools to see what planners have come up with.